An Imperial Path to Modernity

An Imperial Path to Modernity
Author: Jung-Sun N. Han
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2020-03-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 1684175224

An Imperial Path to Modernity examines the role of liberal intellectuals in reshaping transnational ideas and internationalist aspirations into national values and imperial ambitions in early twentieth-century Japan. Perceiving the relationship between liberalism and the international world order, a cohort of Japanese thinkers conformed to liberal ideas and institutions to direct Japan’s transformation into a liberal empire in Asia. To sustain and rationalize the imperial enterprise, these Japanese liberals sought to make the domestic political stage less hostile to liberalism. Facilitating the creation of print-mediated public opinion, liberal intellectuals attempted to enlist the new middle class as a social ally in circulating liberal ideas and practices within Japan and throughout the empire. In tracing the interconnections between liberalism and the imperial project, Jung-Sun N. Han focuses on the ideas and activities of Yoshino Sakuzo (1878–1933), who was and is remembered as a champion of prewar Japanese liberalism and Taisho democracy. Drawing insights from intellectual history, cultural studies, and international relations, this study argues that prewar Japanese liberalism grew out of the efforts of intellectuals such as Yoshino who worked to devise a transnational institution to govern the Japanese empire.

Colonial Modernity in Korea

Colonial Modernity in Korea
Author: Gi-Wook Shin
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 491
Release: 2020-03-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 1684173337

The twelve chapters in this volume seek to overcome the nationalist paradigm of Japanese repression and exploitation versus Korean resistance that has dominated the study of Korea’s colonial period (1910–1945) by adopting a more inclusive, pluralistic approach that stresses the complex relations among colonialism, modernity, and nationalism. By addressing such diverse subjects as the colonial legal system, radio, telecommunications, the rural economy, and industrialization and the formation of industrial labor, one group of essays analyzes how various aspects of modernity emerged in the colonial context and how they were mobilized by the Japanese for colonial domination, with often unexpected results. A second group examines the development of various forms of identity from nation to gender to class, particularly how aspects of colonial modernity facilitated their formation through negotiation, contestation, and redefinition.

Children as Treasures

Children as Treasures
Author: Mark Jones
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 434
Release: 2020-03-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 1684175011

"Mark Jones examines the making of a new child’s world in Japan between 1890 and 1930 and focuses on the institutions, groups, and individuals that reshaped both the idea of childhood and the daily life of children. Family reformers, scientific child experts, magazine editors, well-educated mothers, and other prewar urban elites constructed a model of childhood—having one’s own room, devoting time to homework, reading children’s literature, playing with toys—that ultimately became the norm for young Japanese in subsequent decades. This book also places the story of modern childhood within a broader social context—the emergence of a middle class in early twentieth century Japan. The ideal of making the child into a “superior student” (yutosei) appealed to the family seeking upward mobility and to the nation-state that needed disciplined, educated workers able to further Japan’s capitalist and imperialist growth. This view of the middle class as a child-centered, educationally obsessed, socially aspiring stratum survived World War II and prospered into the years beyond."

Defining Engagement

Defining Engagement
Author: Robert I. Hellyer
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2020-03-17
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1684174996

"Presenting fresh insights on the internal dynamics and global contexts that shaped foreign relations in early modern Japan, Robert I. Hellyer challenges the still largely accepted wisdom that the Tokugawa shogunate, guided by an ideology of seclusion, stifled intercourse with the outside world, especially in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Examining diplomacy, coastal defense, and foreign trade, this study demonstrates that while the shogunate created the broader framework, foreign relations were actually implemented through cooperative but sometimes competitive relationships with the Satsuma and Tsushima domains, which themselves held largely independent ties with neighboring states. Successive Tokugawa leaders also proactively revised foreign trade, especially with China, taking steps that mirrored the commercial stances of other Asian and Western states. In the nineteenth century, the system of foreign relations continued to evolve, with Satsuma gaining a greater share of foreign trade and Tsushima assuming more responsibility in coastal defense. The two domains subsequently played key roles in Japan’s transition from using early modern East Asian practices of foreign relations to the national adoption of international relations, especially the recasting of foreign trade and the centralization of foreign relations authority, in the years surrounding the Meiji Restoration of 1868."

A General History Of The Chinese In Singapore

A General History Of The Chinese In Singapore
Author: Chong Guan Kwa
Publisher: World Scientific
Total Pages: 1002
Release: 2019-06-21
Genre: History
ISBN: 9813277653

A General History of the Chinese in Singapore documents over 700 years of Chinese history in Singapore, from Chinese presence in the region through the millennium-old Hokkien trading world to the waves of mass migration that came after the establishment of a British settlement, and through to the development and birth of the nation. Across 38 chapters and parts, readers are taken through the complex historical mosaic of Overseas Chinese social, economic and political activity in Singapore and the region, such as the development of maritime junk trade, plantation industries, and coolie labour, the role of different bangs, clan associations and secret societies as well as Chinese leaders, the diverging political allegiances including Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary activities and the National Salvation Movement leading up to the Second World War, the transplanting of traditional Chinese religions, the changing identity of the Overseas Chinese, and the developments in language and education policies, publishing, arts, and more.With 'Pride in our Past, Legacy for our Future' as its key objective, this volume aims to preserve the Singapore Chinese story, history and heritage for future generations, as well as keep our cultures and traditions alive. Therefore, the book aims to serve as a comprehensive guide for Singaporeans, new immigrants and foreigners to have an epitome of the Singapore society. This publication is supported by the National Heritage Board's Heritage Project Grant.Related Link(s)

Japanese Law in Context

Japanese Law in Context
Author: Curtis J. Milhaupt
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 668
Release: 2020-03-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 1684173531

This is a wide-ranging selection of 130 readings in Japanese law. The essays, extracted from previously published books and articles, cover subjects including historical context, the civil law tradition, the legal services industry, dispute resolution, constitutional law, contracts, torts, criminal law, family law, employment law, corporate law, and economic regulation. This unique collection of readings is accompanied by the texts of the Japanese constitution and other basic laws.

Anglo-Chinese Encounters Since 1800

Anglo-Chinese Encounters Since 1800
Author: Wang Gungwu
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2003-04-07
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780521534130

A penetrating and sophisticated 2003 account of the relationship between China and imperial Britain.

"Kingdom-Minded" People

Author: Denise Austin
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2011-09-20
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004222677

During the early twentieth century in China, a number of key economic leaders converted to Christianity. Whilst strongly influenced by cultural heritage, powerful modernizing forces and tumultuous political changes, the new Christian identity inculcated by Protestant missionaries motivated these entrepreneurs to modify their business practices, improve their social environment and extend the influence of Christianity. Protestant and Catholic sojourners likewise made significant contributions into their adopted communities. With unprecedented economic growth in China today, a fascinating contemporary parallel can be seen, particularly through the influence of Pentecostal, charismatic and evangelical training. Previous research has explored the emergence of the urban Christian élite in modern China. However, this systematic study provides new understanding of how Christian identity motivates Chinese business Christians toward economic, social and religious contribution.

Worldly Stage

Worldly Stage
Author: Sophie Volpp
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 395
Release: 2020-03-23
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 168417435X

"In seventeenth-century China, as formerly disparate social spheres grew closer, the theater began to occupy an important ideological niche among traditional cultural elites, and notions of performance and spectatorship came to animate diverse aspects of literati cultural production. In this study of late-imperial Chinese theater, Sophie Volpp offers fresh readings of major texts such as Tang Xianzu’s Peony Pavilion (Mudan ting) and Kong Shangren’s Peach Blossom Fan (Taohua shan), and unveils lesser-known materials such as Wang Jide’s play The Male Queen (Nan wanghou). In doing so, Volpp sheds new light on the capacity of seventeenth-century drama to comment on the cultural politics of the age. Worldly Stage arrives at a conception of theatricality particular to the classical Chinese theater and informed by historical stage practices. The transience of worldly phenomena and the vanity of reputation had long informed the Chinese conception of theatricality. But in the seventeenth century, these notions acquired a new verbalization, as theatrical models of spectatorship were now applied to the contemporary urban social spectacle in which the theater itself was deeply implicated."

Shredding the Tapestry of Meaning

Shredding the Tapestry of Meaning
Author: John Solt
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 419
Release: 2020-03-23
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1684173264

"Kitasono Katue was a leading avant-garde literary figure, first in Japan and then throughout the world, from the 1920s to the 1970s. In his long career, Kitasono was instrumental in creating Japanese-language work influenced by futurism, dadaism, and surrealism before World War II and in contributing a Japanese voice to the international avant-garde movement after the war. This critical biography of Kitasono examines the life, poetry, and poetics of this controversial and flamboyant figure, including his wartime support of the Japanese state. Using Kitasono as a window on Japanese literature in the twentieth century, John Solt analyzes the relationship of Japanese writers to foreign literary movements and the influence of Japanese writers on world literature."